What kind of weather are they having in the areas you want to got to now? Up here hiking in the mountains pretty much shuts down in October. They've already had 2 ft. of snow over at Yellowstone.

Good point. But it looks like Truckee CA (elevation 5800 ft) will have highs in the upper 50s / lower 60s and night frost at 27-29°F next week. Higher elevations will probably be a little challenging? Too bad that this trip didn't come up earlier in the year.

Collected mature subalpine larch cones some weeks ago in northern Washington cascades. Needles were just starting to turn then, main show was not yet underway.

I used to live in that area, and there is a nice park called "Calavaras Big Trees State Park" that is a little south of there. There are some fine examples of Giant Sequoias there. The road is a bit treacherous getting there from Lake Tahoe, regardless of the weather, but it is worth it. This park is less well known than many others, but is very nice.

Dennis

I'd second Dennis; Calaveras Big Trees has wonderful Giant Sequoias but also some of the largest sugar pines I've ever seen. Highly recommended.

Frank

It's too late for lower-elevation seeds and pretty touch-and-go for uppers, so I wouldn't plan on any collections. Weather in these places looks ok for the 5-day forecast period, at least no precip, though maybe cloudy. As mentioned, Calaveras Big Tree State Park is a good visit, though not much of a hike. Desolation Wilderness is good hiking with lodgepole/red fir at the trailhead on up to white pine, Jeff and whitebarks further up. If you are a pine freak you might visit the Institute of Forest Genetics' Eddy Arboretum in the hills above Placerville. Most of the world's pines are there, and some other assorted conifers as well.

"Is this a good time for anything; e.g. ... seeing Alpine Larches"

No larch in the Sierra Nevada!! Need to head for the north end of the Cascades for that.

Resin

I've only been briefly in the Tahoe area, but Jeffery pines there & especially several miles to the east on the high, east-facing Sierra slopes were unforgetable.

The weather looks sunny through Friday. There are fine Sierra junipers in Carson Pass and for several miles down the road to Jackson. If you are staying in Reno you may want to zip down to the White Mountains (south on #395) for Great Basin bristlecone, limber pine, Utah juniper and singleleaf pinyon. If you stay in Bishop (on #395) you can head up the Sierra from Independence to see Sierra foxtail pine with red fir, lodgepole, western white, whitebark, and Jeffrey pines above Onion Valley campground in Kearsarge Pass.

Thank you everyone, especially pinetree30! I will definitely stop by the Eddy Arboretum on my way up to the mountains. I will start out in the Tahoe/Desolation Wilderness and marvel at some fine Abies magnifica stands, then head south to Calaveras Big Trees, and to the east side of the Sierras in an attempt to collect Pinus monophylla seeds. If there is time, I will continue on to the Kings Canyon/Kearsarge Pass area. I will take my camera and share the picture when I return.

Resin  I have seen larches at high elevations in the Stanislaus NF area. Those would have been Larix occidentalis? - There is a little town in the area named Tamarack.

Have a nice trip!

'Fraid you'll be too late to collect your own Pinus monophylla seed, the Pinyon Jays will have long since finished the harvest by now. Should be possible to buy some, try any Native American reservations.

Any larches in Stanislaus NF would be planted, perhaps a forester's experiment. Thus they could be any species - don't be surprised if they turn out to be L. decidua or L. kaempferi.

Resin

What you thought were larches may have been mountain hemlock. In California, "tamarack" refers to lodgepole pine!

Good hunting.